Rossella Emanuele

Rossella Emanuele

Rossella Emanuele is an artist, a lecturer and a researcher. Born in Italy, she lives and works in the UK since 1994.

Her practice departs from traditional constraints of sculpture to embrace flexibility, even precariousness expressed in the objects themselves or in the encounter with the space inhabited. Proposing a provisional relationship to the art object that finds completion through various engagements, the work sits at the intersection of idea, material and process. This approach has evolved to include collaborative andp articipatory approaches, where the resulting installations, films, drawing and/or performances are brought into being as a result of each works context. Solo, group exhibitions and publications have taken place in the UK, Italy, France, Germany, Azerbaijan, China and America. Recent projects include: dAnCing LinEs (funded by ACE), Residency at Rotterdam University Willem de Kooning Academy (NL); A History of Drawing (Camberwell Space curated by Kelly Chorpening 2018)

rossellaemanuele.com

Greg Foley

Greg Foley

Greg Foley is an artist, designer, author and illustrator. He was born in the Philippines, raised in Texas and moved to New York after attending Rhode Island School of Design. His work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna; Beinecke Library, Yale University; and others. Foley is a visiting lecturer and critic at Parsons School of Design, RISD, Columbia University, Yale, and UT. He is the author-illustrator of eleven children’s books including the acclaimed Thank You Bear series (Viking) as well as the illustrated history of subculture COOL: Style, Sound, and Subversion (Rizzoli), and a contributing cover artist for The New Yorker.

Lissa Holloway-Attaway

Lissa Holloway-Attaway

Lissa Holloway-Attaway, PhD is an Associate Professor in Media Arts, Aesthetics, and Narration in the Division of Game Development within the School of Informatics at the University of Skövde (Sweden). She is the leader for the Media, Technology and Culture research group, and she teaches in the games education. Her background is in theatre performance, literature studies, and digital culture/media studies, and she works across many digital media forms, from digital art, to electronic literature, experimental audio/video, and games. Her creative and critical work has been published, exhibited and performed in a number of International venues. Her current research is focused on emergent media (AR/VR/MR), experimental narrative, digital cultural heritage games, and environmental posthumanities.

Simonetta Marcello

Simonetta Marcello

I have been working in particle physics at accelerators from over 30 years in experiments at different laboratories, such as CERN, INFN-LNF, J-PARC, IHEP and KEK, in the design, construction and operation of particle detectors, and I am professor of experimental physics at University of Turin in Italy. My interest extends to other fields, such as yoga and sacred feminine and arts, encompassing theatre, poetry, rhythm, sound and the visual arts. My involvement with these disciplines enables me to create an intangible but endurable net of information, which produces new ways of thinking and opens up new territories in my life and in my work as a physicist.

Dmitri Medvedev

Dmitri Medvedev

Dmitri is a North Carolina-based artist working to encourage meaningful interpersonal connections for more passionate lives. Throughout his career, he has communicated through photography, video production, animation, and design. His current medium is Virtual Reality with which he creates out-of-body experiences that introduce new perspectives on movement, perception, communication, and play. He sees VR as a way to integrate intercultural practices with technology for the betterment of all communities.

Ionnie McNeill

Ionnie McNeill

Ionnie is currently living a double life, working as a Project Executive at her family-owned business, MCO Construction, and moonlighting as a page at the Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach. In her former life, she taught kids and young adults the importance of investing and how to become a corporate shareholder, which culminated in a book entitled, The Baby Billionaire’s Guide to Investing. During that time she was featured in Seventeen, Essence, Black Enterprise and USA Today. Now she focuses on Civil Rights advancements for minority-owned businesses through contracting opportunities and access to capital investment.

Roshmond Patten

Roshmond Patten

Creative director, hip-hop artist, frontman and decorated writer Sum has spent his career carving a visionary approach to music and business, often melding the two into new models years before it becomes popular. The two-time Independent Music Award nominee’s music has been featured in Saints Row and dozens of TV shows including Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy. He also fronts his space-funk band The Milky Way, renowned in Los Angeles for their attention to live performance art. As a writer, Sum’s pen is also a high powered gun-for-hire. Donald Glover’s Atlanta, Tracy Morgan & Jordan Peele’s The Last O.G. , Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga and projects for Apple Music and Amazon Music  have all leaned on his inventiveness and knowledge of music. Professionally he is currently lending his talents as Creative Director in Residence for the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, and beginning his foray into landscape, experiential and environmental design. Musically his current focus is on the multi-format LANDSPEEDR project, a digital one-man show that lives on YouTube.

Lydia Nakashima Degarrod

Lydia Nakashima Degarrod

Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Ph.D. is both a visual artist and a cultural anthropologist who creates installations that blur the line between ethnography and art. Her latest work, Atlas of Dreams, unveils the invisible presence of dreams in the urban context.

She has published extensively on her interdisciplinary work in major journals in anthropology and art. Lydia has exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally and received numerous awards for her artwork. She has been an artist in residence at Harvard University, de Young Museum of Art, the Center for Art and Public Life, and Djerassi Resident Artists Program.

Spencer Topel

Spencer Topel

Spencer Topel is an American artist combining sound, installation, and performance. His practice is often characterized as an exploration between sculpture and musical instruments, expressed in a variety of works ranging from site-specific installations to performance art pieces. At the heart of this inquiry is the notion that objects have their own unique voice, and the task of the artist is to reveal and amplify this quality.  Most recently, Topel was Artist-in-Residence at The Yale Quantum Institute, where he and his team developed the first-ever musical synthesizer using Qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers. 

Hussein Rashid

Hussein Rashid

Hussein Rashid, PhD, is founder of islamicate, L3C, a consultancy focusing on religious literacy. He is currently teaching at The New School and his research focuses on Muslims and American popular culture. His work includes exploring Shi’i theology, the interaction between culture and religion, and the role of arts in conflict mediation. He co-edited a book on Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel. He is currently co-editing a volume on Islam and Popular Culture, and another volume on Islam in North America. He is also co-authoring a cultural history of Muslims in America. His current projects include an independent film, a documentary, and a museum project on religion and jazz. He worked with the Children’s Museum of Manhattan as a content expert on their exhibit “America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far.” 

husseinrashid.com
@islamoyankee

Keisha V. Thompson

Keisha V. Thompson

Keisha V. Thompson, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY. Dr. Thompson holds her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Texas A&M University. A native of Trinidad & Tobago, Dr. Thompson grew up in Brooklyn. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Business Communication at Baruch College, CUNY, and her master’s degree in School Counseling at Hunter College, CUNY. Dr. Thompson’s research is centered around Blackness in the African diaspora, particularly the Caribbean. Dr. Thompson is also the co-creator and co-director of the Historically Underrepresented Faculty & Staff Resource Center at Kingsborough.​

Ben Knapp

Ben Knapp

R. Benjamin Knapp is the Founding Director of the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) and Professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. ICAT seeks to promote research and education at the boundaries between art, design, engineering, and science. Dr. Knapp also leads the Music, Sensors, and Emotion research group, with researchers in the UK and the US.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Knapp has been working to create meaningful links between human-computer interaction, universal design, and various forms of creativity. His research on human-computer interaction has focused on the development and design of user-interfaces and software that allow both composers and performers to augment the physical control of a musical instrument with direct sensory interaction. He holds twelve patents and is the co-inventor of the BioMuse system, which enables artists to use gesture, cognition, and emotional state to interact with audio and video media.

In previous positions, Dr. Knapp has served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at University College, Dublin, and chief technology officer of the Technology Research for Independent Living Centre. As the director of technology at MOTO Development Group in San Francisco, Calif., he managed teams of engineers and designers developing human-computer interaction systems for companies such as Sony, Microsoft, and Logitech. He co-founded BioControl Systems, a company that develops mobile bioelectric measurement devices for artistic interaction. Dr. Knapp has also served as professor and chair of the Department of Computer, Information, and Systems Engineering at San Jose State University.

He earned a doctorate and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University. Dr. Knapp has been a PI in several pan-European projects including, CAPSIL (Common Awareness and Knowledge Platform for Studying and Enabling Independent Living) and SIEMPRE (Social Interaction and Entrainment Using Music Performance) and coordinated the EU project, BRAID (Bridging Research in Ageing and ICT Development).

Eric Lyon

Eric Lyon

Eric Lyon is a composer, computer musician, spatial music researcher, audio software developer, and curator. In the 1980s, Lyon developed a wide range of new signal processing strategies for modifying both synthetic and acoustic sounds, including a wide range of spectral processors based on Fourier analysis. In the 1990s, he developed algorithmic approaches to sound design that resulted in increasingly complex and unpredictable timbres. In parallel, he began working with live processing of acoustic sounds, first with the Kyma system, and next with Max/MSP, ultimately writing a large collection of his own Max/MSP audio plugins (also called “externals”). 

In the first decade of the 21st century, Lyon has continued developing interactive computer chamber music, with precise DSP designs integrated into instrumental counterpoint. He also began developing strategies for creating multichannel music. In the second decade of the 21st century, Lyon has focused on creating immersive music for massively multichannel systems, also known as high-density loudspeaker arrays (HDLAs). He has increasingly automated live DSP processing in his works for acoustic instruments and electronics, drawing on the sequencing capabilities of Ableton Live in tandem with its internal DSP plug-in design platform Max for Live.

Lyon’s publicly available software includes FFTease (with Christopher Penrose) and LyonPotpourri, collections of externals written for Max/MSP and Pd. Lyon is the author of the book “Designing Audio Objects for Max/MSP and Pd”, which explicates the process of designing and implementing audio DSP externals. In 2016, Lyon was guest editor of the Computer Music Journal, editing two issues (CMJ 40:4 and 41:1) dedicated to the subject of HDLAs. Lyon also curated the 2016 Computer Music Journal Sound Anthology, which was the first binaural anthology published by the CMJ.

In 2011, Lyon was awarded a Giga-Hertz prize from ZKM, resulting in the creation of the 43-channel computer music composition Spirits. His 124-channel composition “The Cascades” was premiered in the Cube at the Virginia Tech Center for the Arts, and performed on the BEAST system at BEAST FEaST 2015 in Birmingham, and at the SARC Sonic Lab in Belfast at Sonorities/Speculations 2016. His multichannel composition "Spaced Images with Noise and Lines" was selected for multiple performances in the 2015 MUSLAB competition, and his computer music composition "Light Rain, Laganside" was selected for performance at the International Society for Contemporary Music’s 2016 World Music Days festival. In 2018, Lyon was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition. His music is commercially available on Ash International, Bohn Media, Everglade, Capstone Records, Centaur Records, EMF, Innova, Isospin Labs Records, New Focus Records, Northern Spy Recordings, Ravello Records, Smart Noise Records, and Sound’s Bounty.    

Current projects include co-artistic directorship (with Tyechia Thompson) of Cube Fest 2021 centering Afrofuturist immersive music, co-architecting the I4 community at Virginia Tech (with Anthony Kwame Harrison, Matthew Holt, Aki Ishida, Sylvester Johnson, Benjamin Knapp, Lisa McNair, Todd Ogle, Leo Piilonen, and Menah Pratt-Clarke), creating an evening-long dance suite for String Noise with live electronics, creating a new piece for sound and movement with Scotty Hardwig and Kyle Hutchins, and writing a book on algorithmic sound design.

Keisha V. Thompson

Lisa McNair

Lisa D. McNair develops integrative education projects that transverse perspectives within and beyond the university.  Her currently funded NSF projects include revolutionizing the VT ECE department, identifying practices in intentionally inclusive Maker spaces, and exploring professional identity development in Civil Engineering students with disabilities. She is also a co-PI on two grants -- Vibrant Virginia and 4-VA -- focused on building networks across Virginia to support PK12 teaching and learning. At Virginia Tech she led a cross-college team in creating the interdisciplinary undergraduate Pathways Innovation Minor, and she teaches graduate courses in educational theory, assessment and research methods. Her work in CRSE focuses on building networks between the University and multiple community sectors and supporting engagement in science, engineering, arts, and design. 

Myounghoon "Philart" Jeon

Myounghoon "Philart" Jeon

Main Area of research:  Human-Computer Interaction/ Human-Robot Interaction

  • Sound and Music Computing
  • Affective Computing
  • Assistive Technologies
  • Automotive User Interfaces
  • Aesthetic Computing
Aki Ishida

Aki Ishida

Aki Ishida is Associate Professor of Architecture teaching undergraduate design labs and Building Materials course. She is also a Senior Fellow of Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) where she collaborates with engineers and artists, and served as Director of Intelligent Infrastructure for Human-Centered Communities (IIHCC), the university’s trans-college initiative. She founded Aki Ishida Architect PLLC in New York City, and prior to that, she worked at the offices of Rafael Vinoly Architects, James Carpenter Design Associates, and I.M. Pei Architect.

Aki’s work, in both writing and design, center around aspects of architecture that are temporal, impermanent, and ever-changing, including aging of buildings over the course of their lifespan, and mutable readings of architecture. She is the author of the book Blurred Transparencies in Contemporary Glass Architecture: Material, Culture, and Technology (Routledge, 2020), which examines material glass in broader cultural and social contexts. Lantern Field, an interactive audio-visual installation she led at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., was one of a dozen international winners of 2013 Architectural Lighting Design Award. In 2012, she worked with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Strategic Planning and Innovation Lab to improve the quality of cancer care delivery through design.

Prior to Virginia Tech, Aki taught design studios at Rhode Island School of Design, The Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, and Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea. Her work has been supported by grants from Japan Foundation New York, the Graduate Kinne Traveling Fellowship from Columbia University, Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant from the American Institute of Architects NY, and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and the Baer Art Center. She has served three times as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts Art Works grants. She has been recognized with a 2018 University Certificate for Excellence in Teaching and nationally with a 2017 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) New Faculty Teaching Award and as one of 25 Most Admired Educators for 2016 by DesignIntelligence.

Todd Ogle

Todd Ogle

Investigates strategies and methods for making the unseen seen via immersive experiences. Over the last decade, Ogle has used augmented and virtual reality to bring hidden histories to life, engage young learners in inquiry-based learning, and improve decision-making ability in spatially and contextually authentic immersive simulations.

Sylvester Johnson

Sylvester Johnson

Sylvester A. Johnson, the founding director of the Virginia Tech Center for Humanities, is a nationally recognized humanities scholar specializing in the study of technology, race, religion, and national security. He is also assistant vice provost for the humanities at Virginia Tech and executive director of the university’s Tech for Humanity initiative.

His award-winning scholarship is advancing new approaches to understanding the human condition and social institutions of power in an age of intelligent machines and other forms of technology innovation.

From 2014 to 2017, Johnson led a 20-member team of humanists and technologists at Northwestern University to develop a successful proof-of-concept for a machine learning system that could assist in scholarly research of an early English corpus using named-entity recognition and topic-modeling. In 2017, he joined the faculty of Virginia Tech, where he advances research at the intersection of humanity and technology.

Johnson, who holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Religion and Culture, has authored The Myth of Ham in Nineteenth-Century American Christianity, a study of race and religious hatred that won the American Academy of Religion’s Best First Book award; and African American Religions, 1500-2000, an award-winning interpretation of five centuries of democracy, colonialism, and freedom in the Atlantic world. Johnson has also co-edited The FBI and Religion: Faith and National Security Before and After 9/11. A founding co-editor of the Journal of Africana Religions, he has published more than 70 scholarly articles, essays, and reviews.

Johnson is currently writing a book on human identity in the age of intelligent machines and human-machine symbiosis. He is also producing a digital scholarly edition of an early English history of global religions.